Better grades rewarded

-Edwardsburg scholarship focuses on improved academic achievement.

-Edwardsburg scholarship focuses on improved academic achievement.

February 14, 2008|BARBARA DEMPSEY Tribune Correspondent

EDWARDSBURG -- Edwardsburg High School seniors who have been steadily improving their grades over the past four years and would like to attend college have a new local scholarship program to consider. Unlike many other scholarship programs that award money based on a student's high academic achievement or on financial need or a combination of the two, this one has steady improvement of grades as its primary criteria. This year, for the first time, the Edwardsburg Public Schools Foundation hopes to award scholarships of $1,000 each to 10 graduating seniors who are interested in attending a two-year or four-year college or university or trade or vocational school. The idea is to help those students who may stumble academically at first but eventually improve their grades, even if honor roll status is never achieved. Commitment to continuing their education and participation in school activities also will be considered. The application deadline is April 15. The Edwardsburg Public Schools Foundation has never been publicly announced although important facts about it, including its mission, and lists of its board of directors, meeting agendas, minutes, and scholarship applications are readily available at www.edwardsburgpublicschoolsfoundation.org. The brainstorm for a foundation arose from a strategic planning committee that was appointed to draw up the district's 2005-2010 strategic plan. Both the establishment of the foundation and an endowment fund are listed among that plan's goals. The foundation acquired nonprofit status in 2006. Since then, its board of directors, made up of a cross section of community residents, has been planning the projects that began taking root this year. Those include the scholarship program as well as awards of mini-grants for classroom or other special projects. Just this school year, the directors began quietly raising money from corporate donors and individuals alike to sustain the organization's mission. Giving also is encouraged through trusts, real estate, bequests, wills, stocks and bonds, and school employees can contribute through a payroll deduction plan. The directors hope to create a permanent and sustainable source of funding to support and enhance the mission. The ultimate goal of the scholarship program, however, is far greater. According to Pat Bellaire, the school district's director of operations, the foundation hopes eventually to emulate the tuition plan established in 2005 in Kalamazoo that is known as The Promise. The Kalamazoo program is a pledge by anonymous donors to pay up to 100 percent of college tuition at Michigan schools for graduates of Kalamazoo public high schools. "The thing that is kind of cool about this one is that it focuses on students that very often are not at the forefront of the scholarship award," Bellaire said. Eventually, however, the foundation's directors hope to award scholarships to all students who want to continue their education. "A big part of getting this (the foundation) off the ground is the reputation of the district and the fact that people are excited in wanting to be a part of it," she said. In May 2005, the Edwardsburg Public Schools received the State of Michigan Tribute from Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The district was recognized as being the only school district in the state to have earned the Michigan Blue Ribbon Exemplary School distinction for all of its school buildings. Additionally, the high school also has been recognized as a national Blue Ribbon school. Other creative projects are receiving attention this year through three mini-grants of $500 each that have been awarded to district staff members. One went to Linda Kozlowski, the district's intervention specialist who organizes and oversees projects involving intervention and behavioral services. She used the money to set up a Corps of Ambassadors in each classroom or, in the case of the elementary schools -- at each grade level -- to aid new students in acclimating to their surroundings. They receive personal peer escorts during lunch and recess and in the classroom, are introduced to the school district's violence prevention protocols and policies, and provided with new student orientation. A second grant went to Debra Kraska, a teacher in the multi-age classroom at Eagle Lake Elementary School. On March 5, author and illustrator Bill Dallas Lewis will work with students on writing and demonstrate how he uses computer graphics applications to make things appear real. Approximately 100 students in the second and third grade then will edit a written document using the methods that they learned. Fourth-grade teacher Lisa Jacobson received a grant to enlist Michigan historian and storyteller, Larry B. Massie, to take students on a pilgrimage through Michigan's past. Massie is known throughout the state for his vignettes featuring Indian chiefs, Jesuit priests, pioneers, lumberjacks, Great Lakes ship captains and underground railroad conductors. He will educate and entertain students at the Edwardsburg Intermediate School on April 15.